Nurses refuse to oversee private carers

The HSE is locked in a dispute with nurses over who should be responsible for private home care workers providing unregulated services to thousands of older people.

An internal document drawn up by senior HSE officials was presented to public health nurses recently, directing them to take over monitoring workers employed by private agencies. The move has been met with alarm by public health nurses, who say the plan is unworkable because staff are overstretched by existing duties, and the 24-hour nature of home care would make monitoring an impossible extra burden.

They also claim that, under the code of conduct governing their nursing registration, they would be personally liable for failings or abuses by home care workers under their jurisdiction and they are not willing to put their own licences at risk over the performance of personnel with whom they have little or no contact.